All posts tagged: Kevin Warsh

Inside Kevin Warsh’s selection process for the next Atlanta Fed president

Inside Kevin Warsh’s selection process for the next Atlanta Fed president

Published by Sam Flores

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Georgia government building entrance. Ablokhin | Istock Editorial | Getty Images The search for a new president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta — now entering its seventh month — is being watched carefully for how new Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh intends to reshape the interest rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee. That process has shifted as Warsh has begun to put his stamp on the central bank. The Fed was considering candidates for Atlanta under then-Chair Jerome Powell, but the selection process was paused in part to allow Warsh to oversee the appointment, two people familiar with the hiring process told CNBC, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing search. Michael Faulkender, a former senior Treasury official under President Donald Trump, was subsequently considered for the position in Atlanta, the people said. It isn’t clear if Faulkender is still a candidate. The Atlanta Fed declined to comment on Faulkender or who is under consideration. “Our committee is conducting a thorough and deliberate search for the next president …

Kevin Warsh task forces are key to understanding the new Fed

Kevin Warsh task forces are key to understanding the new Fed

Published by Sam Flores

Kevin Warsh, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, during a news conference following a Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, June 17, 2026. Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images Chairman Kevin Warsh’s 43-odd minutes at the Federal Reserve’s podium Wednesday were intended to deliver the message that, slowly but surely, he will set about making the Fed quieter, more humble in its engagement with the markets and the economy, and — ultimately — laser-focused on inflation.  “I’ve said for years inflation is a choice,” Warsh told reporters. “You bet it is.” Warsh sees his confirmation as Fed chair as a mandate to deliver far-reaching change to the Fed, intended to get the Fed out of the business of allowing inflation to run too hot. At his first press conference, he gave a roadmap to how that change will come about. He also gave some hints as to where he may face the biggest risks.  Read more CNBC politics coverage Warsh’s initial changes to the Fed are in some …

Trump trusts Fed Chair Warsh. It matters for more than interest rates

Trump trusts Fed Chair Warsh. It matters for more than interest rates

Published by Sam Flores

US President Donald Trump, right, and Kevin Warsh, incoming chairman of the US Federal Reserve, during a swearing-in ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, May 22, 2026. Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images When Kevin Warsh steps to the podium Wednesday for his first news conference as chair of the Federal Reserve, he will enjoy something his predecessor Jerome Powell lacked for years: breathing room from the president. “The president trusts Warsh, so he’ll have some scope of action,” a person familiar with Trump-Fed dynamics said, speaking under condition of anonymity to describe what has been one of the most volatile relationships of this administration. The new Fed chair will attempt to use that freedom to make his case internally for far-reaching change at the Fed, people who know him and closely follow the central bank said. Warsh’s reform agenda includes moving the Fed slowly toward the lower rates Warsh has endorsed as well as reducing the institution’s multibillion-dollar balance sheet and changing how it …

Call Kevin Warsh the Fed ‘chairman’

Call Kevin Warsh the Fed ‘chairman’

Published by Sam Flores

Kevin Warsh, chairman of the US Federal Reserve nominee for US President Donald Trump, is sworn in during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. Graeme Sloan | Bloomberg | Getty Images It’s officially “Chairman” Kevin Warsh, not “chair.”   The Federal Reserve website now lists Warsh as “chairman,” not “chair,” reversing the past 12 years when his predecessors Janet Yellen and Jerome Powell both chose to be called “chair.” Before Yellen, the term “chairman” was used exclusively. No law or regulation governs what a chair is called, leaving it up to personal preference. The Federal Reserve Act references “chairman” of the Board of Governors and “vice chairman.” It even names “vice chairman of supervision,” a position not created until the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The Fed is a body created by Congress, and in 2021, under the leadership of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the House adopted gender neutral language for its official proceedings. It changed “chairman” to “chair,” …

For Warsh as Fed chair, silence may be the point

For Warsh as Fed chair, silence may be the point

Published by Sam Flores

Markets head into the first Fed meeting run by new Chair Kevin Warsh with almost no idea what he thinks about the recent surge in job growth, the acceleration in inflation or the path of interest rates. And that may be by design. Warsh has strongly criticized Fed communications, saying they have led to policy errors and placed the Fed more at the center of market decisions and the economy than it should be. His plans for “regime change” include a rethink of how the Fed forecasts and talks about its plans for monetary policy. That appears to include both quantity and frequency. “If you ask me my true personal opinion right now, Fed chairs and other central bankers around the FOMC, they speak quite frequently,” Warsh said at his confirmation hearing in April, referring to the Federal Open Market Committee. “I would say this, I think truth-seeking is more important than repetition. If one has a press conference, one wants to deliver some important news.” The immediate short-run question is where Warsh stands on …

Pirro’s losses in Fed matter should stay on the books, judge rules

Pirro’s losses in Fed matter should stay on the books, judge rules

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announces charges in connection with an international car theft ring during a press conference at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 22, 2026. Nathan Howard | Reuters A federal judge in Washington on Thursday denied a prosecutor’s request to erase the record of the government’s legal losses during its attempt to investigate former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Chief Judge James Boasberg, in a scathing order in D.C. District Court, replete with media quotes and links to a YouTube clip, denied a motion by the office of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro to vacate his earlier rulings that had gone against Pirro. The latest development caps a monthslong legal saga that saw Boasberg halt aspects of an investigation by Pirro into the Fed. Boasberg in March quashed a pair of subpoenas Pirro issued because, he ruled, Pirro’s effort was intended at least in part to “harass and pressure Powell” on behalf of the president, who wanted lower interest rates. Read more CNBC politics coverage Pirro …

Trump loves inflation. Why that should be music to Kevin Warsh’s ears: Analysis

Trump loves inflation. Why that should be music to Kevin Warsh’s ears: Analysis

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. President Donald Trump arrives with incoming Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh for Warsh’s swearing-in ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 22, 2026. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters A strange thing may happen in the coming days. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh may do exactly what his predecessor Jerome Powell had done about interest rates — only to get a completely different response from President Donald Trump. Trump’s unexpected comments Wednesday on the latest inflation figure may give Warsh some space on interest rates. “I love the inflation,” he said in the Oval Office hours after the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that annualized inflation jumped by 4.2%. If the president is unconcerned with the highest inflation in three years, that may buy Warsh a reprieve from expectations to quickly lower interest rates. The president spent years railing against and trying to undermine Powell for what Trump saw as a stubborn refusal to cut interest rates faster and deeper than the Fed was willing to go. But now that Warsh has been …

Outgoing chair Powell delivers defence of Fed independence

Outgoing chair Powell delivers defence of Fed independence

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON: Outgoing US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell on Sunday (May 31) delivered a staunch defence of the need for the central bank to maintain independence and credibility, as it comes under assault from President Donald Trump. “Like many other institutions, the Fed has been undergoing a stress test,” he said as he accepted an award from the John F Kennedy Library Foundation. “If any administration finds a way to remove Fed officials over policy differences, then future administrations will do so as well,” Powell said, in a barely veiled reference to the Trump administration’s attempt to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook. “The public would lose faith that the central bank will make decisions based only on what’s best for all Americans.” In his second term in power, Trump has frequently criticised and insulted Powell, alleging he was too slow to lower interest rates. Trump’s Justice Department went so far as to pursue criminal charges against the Fed chair over a building renovation project. The probe was eventually dropped to smooth the path towards Powell’s …

Trump swears Kevin Warsh in as Fed chair, seeking interest rate cuts

Trump swears Kevin Warsh in as Fed chair, seeking interest rate cuts

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump led a ceremony swearing in Kevin Warsh as chair of the Federal Reserve, putting him in charge of a central bank that must navigate a tumultuous economy and a president with very specific expectations on interest rates. Trump, whose actions toward the Fed have spurred bipartisan alarms about executive influence on the historically independent central bank, said he wanted Warsh to “just do your own thing and do a great job.” “I want Kevin to be totally independent,” Trump said at the start of the event Friday morning. “Don’t look at me, don’t look at anybody.” But the swearing-in ceremony itself highlighted the the president’s unprecedented involvement with the Fed during his second term: Warsh is the first Fed chair to be sworn in at the White House since Alan Greenspan in 1987. The event in the East Room was attended by a range of high-profile figures, including Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, House Speaker Mike Johnson and many other politicians and Cabinet officials. Thomas delivered the oath to …

The bond market is flashing a warning, energy geopolitics expert warns

The bond market is flashing a warning, energy geopolitics expert warns

Published by Sam Flores

Don’t look now, but the pain from high energy prices might be about to bite Americans twice.  With no end in sight to the war in Iran and oil prices stuck above $100 a barrel, bond traders worried about inflation have sold off long-term government debt in the U.S. and developed economies in recent days. That has the effect of raising bond yields, including on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which rose nearly 24 basis points in the past week to end Friday near 4.6%.  The 10-year Treasury yield influences the cost of mortgages, auto loans, credit card rates and other consumer debt. When it goes up, consumers feel the pinch. Its rate is set by the market, not the Federal Reserve. To unpack what’s happening at the intersection of geopolitics, energy, and global debt, CNBC reached out to Daleep Singh, vice chair and chief global economist at asset manager PGIM. Singh has seen global energy conflicts up close: As deputy national security adviser under President Joe Biden, he designed that administration’s economic effort to cut …